Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

This Bill passed All Stages in Seanad Éireann on 9 December 2003. The Bill now returns to this House for a report from Dáil Éireann, having been amended in the Dáil where it was passed on 27 April. The Bill has been the subject of short but important amendments in the Dáil. As Senators will recall, the primary purpose of this Bill is to ensure that Judge Mahon, as chairperson of the Tribunal to Inquire into Certain Planning Matters and Payments, previously chaired by Mr. Justice Flood, can make orders on applications for costs incurred during the tenure of the previous chairperson. The issue became apparent following the resignation in June 2003 of Mr. Justice Flood as chairperson of the tribunal.

More specifically, the issue arises in the determination of costs concerned with certain modules dealt with in the already published interim reports of the Flood tribunal. These modules were dealt with at a time when Mr. Justice Flood was the sole member of that tribunal and the reports were accordingly prepared by him. The determination of costs had not been made at the time of Mr. Justice Flood's resignation.

The key provision in the Bill is section 2. This section provides, by way of an amendment of section 6 of the Tribunals of Inquiry Act 1979, as amended by the similarly titled 1997 Act, for the insertion of a new subsection (1A) under which the sole member of a tribunal, or the chairperson, if there is more than one member, may make an order on any costs that were incurred before his or her appointment and that have not already been determined. In exercising this power, the sole member, or chairperson, must have regard to any report of the tribunal relating to its proceedings in the period before his or her appointment. The Bill makes clear that the new provisions will apply to tribunals appointed and costs incurred before or after the passing of the legislation.

Since the Bill was passed by the Seanad on 9 December 2003, it was considered necessary to insert a new subsection in order to ensure that paragraph (b) of subsection (1A) cannot have the result of limiting the effect of the amended section 6(1) on matters which can be taken into account by the chairperson when making determinations on costs. Thus two amendments to section 2 of the Bill were passed by the Dáil. The first amendment was in page 3, subsection (1) line 16, where the word "subsection" was deleted and substituted by "subsections". This amendment was essentially a drafting point, necessary to be consistent with the proposed second amendment of section 2.

The more critical amendment to section 2 was in page 3, between lines 27 and 28, which inserted the following subsection: " (1B) Paragraph (b) of subsection (1A) shall not be taken to limit the matters to which regard is to be had under subsection (1).".

This amendment arose following further contact with the Attorney General, and both he and the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, are of the belief that this amendment will bring an extra degree of certainty to the powers provided to a chairperson of a tribunal under section 2 of the Bill.

I commend the amendments to the House.